Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 2:14-15 (New Living Translation)

14 “Thirty-eight years passed from the time we first left Kadesh-barnea until we finally crossed the Zered Brook! By then, all the men old enough to fight in battle had died in the wilderness, as the Lord had vowed would happen. 15 The Lord struck them down until they had all been eliminated from the community.

These verses describe the situation as the Israelites are about to cross into the promised land. They had finished the 40 years of wandering in the desert. A little math and some other passages tell us that some of the men old enough to fight were now 88 years old.

These 88-year-old men died of, well, unnatural causes. The LORD killed them. That was definitely not  natural cause.

This, and other passages, tell us about an unnatural period of 40 years. The people lived in the desert in tents. They ate manna from the LORD, their sandals did not wear out, and men age 88 were capable of fighting in battle.

How do you explain all that? I can’t. These things are far beyond what the natural sciences tell us about human life and the degradation of the physical world.

Something unnatural, a.k.a., spiritual was at work.